“What’s going on? What are we running from? My feet are tired,” the boy said. “Where are my mom and dad?”
That was an excellent question. Where the hell were these kids’ parents? Had they been left here by accident? Had they snuck in and just been unable to find their way out? They were young for the circus as it was. Maybe the parents had dropped them off, not knowing that this wasn’t a typical circus. What kind of irresponsible parents lost or left their under-ten-year-old children at a circus blatantly hosting a kink and pride convention? It wasn’t like people’s costumes were subtle. Caroline didn’t have a problem with bringing kids here, but kids alone was another matter altogether.
“I don’t know where your mom and dad are,” she said between pants.
The boy started to drag, and she pulled all the harder to keep him going at her pace. Caroline knew he had about half her stride, but she was running in a nothing of a tight leather dress and sandals made for walking. If he wanted to live, he had to keep up.
Her mind kept showing her the organ piles on the carousel. They’d been too big to be a child’s, but that didn’t mean the sweet and spicy china-doll face of her clownish lookalike hadn’t seen the insides of a toddler or two. She’d known that, in theory. But she’d never had to be party to it.
“You have to run because the monsters are coming,” Caroline said.
“Mom says there’s no such thing as monsters,” the boy argued, but he looked less sure in the face of an adult’s terror.
“Mommy lied. She didn’t do it on purpose. Come on. My friend has your sister. We need to get you out. I can’t carry you and run fast. You’re too big. You need to run for your life now!”
Caroline looked back. Riley did have Meredith, holding her as though she were his own child. His strength worked in his favor, but his size worked against him, and Caroline had never been track material. The clowns were gaining.
Murphy chittered angrily after them. Tragedy slashed her claws at him, pushing him off his stride.
However, Caroline didn’t think Tragedy was buying her time. Saliva dripped from Tragedy’s open mouth, and the tongue waved in the air as though to taste the scent of sour fear they left behind. Caroline thought Murphy might have said something Tragedy hadn’t wanted to hear.
Caroline didn’t know whether Tragedy’s fondness for her would save her. She just needed to save this boy and accept whatever came after, because she didn’t think she could protect the kids and herself. She couldn’t run forever, and the clowns didn’t appear winded at all.
Caroline reached the gate and pulled on the right side, then the left.
They were already locked. The padlock bound the chains around the bars.
How could that be? The show had just gotten out. She, Colm and Riley had loitered, not hurrying to the carousel, but she didn’t think they had been out that long.
The crowds didn’t have anywhere else to go after the performance, since the booths were closed. They must have been herded quickly out of the circus into the parking lot on the other side of the street.
How had everyone disappeared so quickly? Where the fuck was everyone?
“Can you climb this if I boost you?” Caroline asked quickly.
The little boy nodded, tears streaking his face, but he checked that Meredith was close. He screamed when he finally saw the clowns, who no longer looked like normal clowns. They no longer made an effort to hide the predatory monsters that they were.
His scream made Meredith look over Riley’s shoulder. She screamed too, struggling in Riley’s arms. Riley stumbled. Caroline’s heart stopped for a moment when she thought he would fall, but he didn’t.
“Hey, kid, you need to get out of the circus and run as fast and as far as you can, okay? Find an adult and get them to call the police. But you need to let me lift you up, ’kay?” Caroline said, picking him up while she was talking.
Riley reached the gate.
“It’s locked, Riley. We need to get them over the spikes without hurting them. Help me.”
Caroline wasn’t tall, and neither was Riley. Fortunately, the boy and Meredith must have had some time on a decent jungle gym or treehouse, because they found footholds where Caroline would have slipped.
Something slammed Caroline against the hard iron bars, her cheek striking the metal the hardest. She blacked out for a second or two and lost her grip on the boy’s sneaker.
Meredith screeched and fell over on the other side of the gate, crying anew because she saw the clowns through the bars and her wrist might have been broken. The boy also fell over on the other side, his leg catching on one of the spikes and leaving a nasty gash on his calf. It would need stitches and possibly a tourniquet, but if they didn’t get away now, the clowns could still reach them through the bars and they would definitely die instead of just being superficially injured.
Nails ripped through Caroline’s arms when she pulled Comedy’s reaching hands away from the children. Teeth closed over her shoulder. Her ears filled with the definitive, unnerving sound of rending flesh. Riley fell back against the gate and slid down, his chest a bloody mess and Tragedy standing over him like a demented puppet.
“Run!” Caroline yelled with what little breath she had left.
Murphy snarled, his tongue waving through the air like a vicious tentacle. He grabbed her by her face, digging his claws into her cheeks.
But then he abruptly let go when, snarling himself, Colm jumped onto Murphy’s back, squeezing his arm around Murphy’s neck. It wasn’t as intimidating, but it spoke of the kind of demon he used to be, one who had no problem sinking his teeth into Murphy’s cheek, scalp and ear. Murphy reeled, whirling around and clawing blindly at Colm, but Colm would have nothing of it. He used the momentum of Murphy swinging him around to kick Comedy before Comedy could attack Caroline in Murphy’s stead. Comedy tripped over Caroline’s leg and hit the fence.
Caroline tried to stand using the gate to hold herself up. Tragedy growled, her rows of teeth grinding together, but she didn’t advance.
Caroline met Tragedy’s accusing eyes and whispered, “I’m sorry. I had to.”
Tragedy chittered like an angry monkey, raised her hand then slashed her claws across Riley’s face. She clearly didn’t want to hurt Caroline herself, but she had no such reservations with Riley. Blood spattered against the iron.
“Riley!” Caroline shouted. She reached for him but stumbled. The blow to her head made the world tilt when she moved.
Tragedy steadied her, but then she pushed Caroline away.
Colm fell in a heap at Caroline’s feet, his face a latticework of claw marks like Riley’s and a chunk missing from his arm.
Caroline would have called for him too, but if Colm was there, it meant that Comedy and Murphy no longer had their hands full. She couldn’t raise her hands in defense fast enough, only caught a glimpse Murphy’s big clown boots before her head slammed back into the gate again.
This time, the darkness took her, going red before everything just stopped.
* * * *
Waking up was one of the most unexpected things that had ever happened to her, and this from someone who had been living in a demonic circus for a while. Being able to move was the next surprise.
She was in Madoc’s RV, lying on the couch in the living area. Bell sat on the coffee table next to her. His expression was solemn, like that of some chastising god.
“So this is hell,” she whispered. Her throat was dry.
“No,” Madoc said. “It’s still Arcanium.”
“How am I still alive? Am I still alive? I sometimes think the crew aren’t.”
“That’s because they’re not,” Madoc replied. “But you are, although you won’t be too popular with the clowns for a while. There might be a few more gifts at your doorstep, but they won’t mean what they used to.”
Caroline jerked up before her head was ready. Her vision turned black in cloudbursts. Madoc’s warm hands eased her back down.
�
�Riley. Colm. The kids,” she murmured through the fog. “The kids?”
“Your men are alive, and you helped the children escape. They found someone to call the police for them. No one will believe their story of clowns trying to eat them, fortunately.”
When her vision cleared again, it was to Madoc’s blank eyes and troubled brow.
“You should not have helped them escape. I made those rules for a reason, Caroline. Sometimes kids are believed.”
“They’re stupid rules,” Caroline murmured. The pillow was cool against her hot cheeks. She turned her face against it and closed her eyes for a moment.
“They’re not,” Madoc said. “We try to minimize our contact with law enforcement whenever possible. I can use magic to confuse them, but create too much confusion and the wrong people ask the wrong questions. I don’t want my Arcanium to have to go into hiding because of a misstep. Lady Sasha, Lord Mikhail and the clowns allow Arcanium to defend itself. By far, the most prevalent trespassers, mischief makers and criminals that threaten us are teenagers and adults. Sasha and Mikhail handle most of the adults. The clowns are here for the children. They’ll consume an adult if they get to one, but their taste is for younger flesh.”
“Why?” The question came out like a curse. “What is it about children? That’s sick.”
“Why do humans slaughter lamb instead of sheep for their meat?” Madoc replied. “Human is the clowns’ only food source, and they prefer child flesh to adult. It was what they were made for, and it was why I chose them—because children are the most dangerous threat to Arcanium, not just because of the potential legal trouble. They believe what they see. They can’t tell tricks from magic. The children that you saved, they believe absolutely that they were pursued by monsters that looked like clowns.
“There are those who would try and take this circus down, destroy it like they would a demon’s den. Most that know us leave us alone because I am more powerful than they, but that doesn’t mean someone won’t come after us if they hear a child’s tale of monsters in the circus. Arcanium needs attention to thrive, but the wrong attention will ruin us. We would have to wait for the storm to abate, my cast languishing without an audience. Then my Arcanium would become a hell.”
Madoc’s expression was hard, any trace of his usual impishness gone.
“The clowns as well as Lord Mikhail and Lady Sasha are given very specific instructions on what they can consume—the clowns get the children after eight and any trespassers when the circus is closed, unless I take them for myself. They eat until there is no trace so that there’s no body to identify, with the exception of the gifts you were given. If they were not consuming the trespassers here, they would consume their food source elsewhere. I give their appetites a purpose, and that purpose has boundaries, just as yours does. That purpose also includes my promise that they would have the scraps. And you broke my promise, Caroline.”
“I was just trying to help the kids. I wasn’t thinking about whatever promise you made or the clowns needing to eat. And I don’t give a damn about those things. I did the right thing,” Caroline replied.
“You took what was rightfully theirs. You deprived them of their feast. They are well within their right to take it out of your flesh and the flesh of your men,” Madoc said. “I do not appreciate the position you have put me in.”
Caroline winced as she sat up. She blinked, though, when she saw her arms. They still stung from where the clowns had clawed her, but the scratches themselves were gone…as though the pain was only because her skin hadn’t yet realized it was healed. She checked her face where Murphy had grabbed her. It ached, but her cheeks were smooth.
“We have many injuries in a circus like this, injuries that also call the wrong kind of attention. I would be irresponsible if I didn’t have a way to heal them,” Madoc explained. “Tell me, Caroline, what am I going to do with you if you don’t show remorse for your actions? It disturbs the balance of Arcanium when you rob my hellhounds of their meat. Yet you must stay for the year, and I don’t want you to go a second before you must. This is my dilemma.”
“I’ll take whatever punishment you have for people who step out of line,” Caroline said. “You keep talking about how the clowns are just doing what they do. And I guess on some level I understand that, because I apologized to Tragedy. I get it. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have accepted Tragedy’s gift.”
She eased herself completely upright. Her head was obviously fixed, since she didn’t feel a bump where a bump should have been, but she still experienced the effects of the concussion.
“Look, I’m probably not going to patrol the circus to try to save people from the clowns—not least because most of the people who I’d tell to get out would probably just laugh at me and stomp me like a bug. I don’t doubt that a lot of people your demons catch are assholes. I wasn’t aware that was supposed to be a death sentence, but there’s a Darwinian twist to it, so I don’t know. But those kids weren’t trespassers, sir. They were lost. They were looking for their parents, not trying to cause trouble. They didn’t deserve the clowns. Not even close.
“If you’re going to make this about natural instincts,” she continued, “I know the clowns will hunt because they have to and because you let them. Demons are demons. And I’m a human being. A herd of elephants will protect their young from predators. I’m just following my own biological imperative to protect those kids. I’d do the same thing all over again, whatever the consequences.”
“The flesh promised must be repaid,” Madoc said. “The clowns could have demanded yours in recompense.”
“Did they?” Caroline asked. No matter how strong her voice, she wasn’t feeling strong.
“Murphy did,” Madoc replied.
“You didn’t just revive me to let him kill me.”
“No. Riley made his second wish that you and he wouldn’t be eaten for what you had done. Colm was protecting you, not the children, so he has no flesh that must be paid.”
Caroline’s stomach sank to where she sat. Her head spun in an echo of the trauma suffered.
“I granted his wish and informed him that if the punishment could not be dealt in flesh, it would have to be dealt in blood. I don’t want you dead, Caroline. But although I have bent rules, I have never broken them, not even for those I don’t wish to hurt. My Maya, too, has felt the tongue of the whip on her back. Just as the clowns must have their flesh, the Ringmaster is promised his blood,” Madoc said. “For the transgression, you would receive twenty lashes for the child you saved, the same for Riley—and the Ringmaster is not kind. In moments of pique, his leather cuts to the bone.”
“So why did you heal me if I’m just going to get whipped anyway?” Caroline asked. It was sadistic, a barbaric way to punish someone. She wrapped her arms around her abdomen as though the straps weren’t enough to hold her in. Tears passed back and forth across her eyes, but she once again didn’t want Madoc to see her cry. It was a matter of misguided pride, she knew, because Madoc had seen her cry before and could see every time she’d ever cried if her tears pleased him.
“Because Colm made his second wish to accept the full punishment himself,” Madoc said.
“What?”
Caroline could believe Riley making a wish to spare her, but Colm? How could he sacrifice a wish like that, knowing that it left him with only one to make count with Madoc, who could turn it upside-down? How could he do that? And why would he do that for her when there was no way for him to get anything good out of it?
“You knew this was going to happen,” Caroline said wonderingly. “You saw how it would all go together. You saw what I would do, what they would do and that’s why you gave them to me.”
Madoc shook his head. “You keep seeking deeper significance in my motivations, but there simply isn’t any. I gave them to you because you were the carousel engineer. They were a part of the carousel and still are. I kept them there until you came because only you could be the mistress they needed and they
could be the men you needed. But I didn’t do it for this moment, although the moment was set to come to pass. I didn’t loosen their chains for them to take your place at the stocks, Caroline. The fact is that they each only have one wish left, and I don’t think you want them to use it for you, nor can they keep bailing you out if you intend to continue saving those I’ve slated for my people.”
“I’ll do what I think is necessary, and I’ll take whatever comes with it,” Caroline said.
The clowns’ teeth had been so close to her when they’d given her Tragedy’s gift, and again when they’d almost killed her. When Murphy had bitten Colm, the chunk of flesh had come off as easily as biting into bread. Caroline could pretend to be brave, but she didn’t know how much braver she could really be against real-life monsters who had nearly torn her face off. She was no match against the demons of Arcanium. The only reason she’d fought them at all was because ‘flight’ had failed and ‘fight’ had been the only thing left to do short of kneeling down for execution.
And the only reason she was alive now was because Riley and Colm had wished it so and because Madoc had been there in time to hear them wish—and Caroline fully believed that the reason Madoc had been there to hear the wishes and grant them in a straightforward manner was because he had chosen to.
She couldn’t pass on good will and wishes forever.
Would she do it again? Absolutely. The question was whether she could.
That, she didn’t know.
“If I’d had my way, I would bring you now to the ring to watch Colm take the punishment, all forty lashes at the Ringmaster’s hand. Your ambivalence on whether or not to obey the Arcanium law might change if you saw first-hand what happens to you if you don’t follow that law—and you would see what Colm spared you,” Madoc said.
He conjured her a bottle of orange juice. It was cool and terribly sweet down her throat. Although she needed it, she didn’t deserve the sweetness. It roiled with seasick nausea in her belly.
“But I could not convince the Ringmaster to wait any longer. So I’m afraid I must impress the gravity of your decisions on you by demanding that you continue to be his mistress. You will personally heal the wounds the Ringmaster inflicted on him, as well as the injuries that the clowns gave to both your men.”
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